Santa Claus and Second Thoughts

"How did you make that mistake?" I once asked a friend after a particularly bad decision.

"I never gave it a second thought," was the answer.

Now I've made many mistakes in the past. But almost never without a second (or third) thought.

Ironically, one "person" in our "Santa Claus" society, who does give things a second thought is Santa himself. As the popular Christmas carol goes

"He's making a list, and checking it TWICE.Gotta find out who's naughty and nice."

Now "Santa," in most people's lives, is an older person; probably parents, maybe an older sibling, possibly even that "rich, right-wing uncle," that youngsters fear, and later fear becoming. But someone who will give a thought to what a "kid" deserves. And even if Santa were that old man on the North Pole who spends the year making toys, he'd give a LOT of thought to which kids were deserving, and which weren't.

And here may be the moral. The GIVER of gifts is likely to think twice about things (like yours truly). The problem is that RECEIVERS (or purported receivers), often do not.